God is SO Good!

This has been such an interesting day. I had been planning to take my puppy to meet someone this afternoon, so that this friend could keep Precious while I'm gone to our annual meeting at the Shack, a lovely B&B north of Grand Rapids. I've known Linda, my friend, since school days. She is about five years younger than I, but in the small-town school we attended, we were all in the same location. Later, when I was on staff at Cedarville (College, at that time) now University, she was a student there. We both came from the same little Baptist church. But we haven't seen each other in what she says is 30 years. She found me on Facebook last year, and we've talked about getting together since then. Linda is a dog trainer, and since Precious is a typical, strong-willed Yorkie, I'm looking for some help training her. So we decided that Precious would spend this time at Linda's business, called the Dog House.

Linda lives in southwest Michigan, but miles from me. So she researched a halfway point between my house and hers. We decided to meet at Mattawan at a coffee shop. I was very uneasy about driving there, although I'm not sure why. After lunch time today I finally thought of someone who might be willing to ride along with me. That was of the Lord! I called Sarah, and she agreed to ride with me.

If Sarah had not been with me, I would not have seen the "coffee shop" which turned out to be inside a Shell service station. We were to meet Linda at 4:00. We arrived at 3:55. When she had not yet arrived at 4:15 or 4:20, I decided I'd better call her. I pulled out my cell phone, only to find that I had no service in that area. We knew Sarah had service, because she had gotten a phone call while we waited. So we called Linda, using Sarah's cell phone. Linda had not been able to locate the coffee shop we had agreed on, so she was sitting at another coffee shop, thinking maybe I would go there since the designated one seemed not to be in existence. I'm soooo thankful Sarah was with me. Linda arrived within five minutes of the phone call. We transferred Precious, I told her a bit about her and transferred her crate and food, etc. and we were off again. Unfortunately, we didn't even have time to catch up on news.

Sarah and I came flying back to Grand Rapids because we had two young ladies, one a high school-er, and one a college student, giving a report on the missions trip they took in June. They had gone to the hospital at Koumra, Chad, Africa, the very hospital at which I had my first overseas experience. Sarah had been there as well several years ago, so it was very interesting for both of us. The girls did a very good job. They presented their work, and what the Lord had done in their lives during their time there. It brought back many memories for me. Most of their support came from our church and individual members. The pastor said after the presentation, "Don't you think our money was well invested?" It certainly was.

Let me give you a bit of a report on my history-writing project. My second chapter has gone through the first two proofreaders, and has now been sent to the director. I'm still working on the third chapter. It is taking so much more time than the first two did. I anticipate 13 chapters, so you can see I still have quite a ways to go. Please continue to pray with me about this.

Also pray for us as we members of Bibles International go to our annual meeting tomorrow. Pray for physical, emotional, and spiritual refreshment.

Thank you for your prayers on my behalf. And while you're praying, thank the Lord, as I have been doing, for sending Sarah with me this afternoon. Without her, the afternoon would have been much more complicated and frustrating.